This invention relates to a removable gripping device for a container, particularly a secure removable handle for a pot or a pan.
A removable gripping device for a container of the type comprising two members forming a gripper mounted on a gripping body is known, in which one of the members forming the gripper is free to move in translation with respect to the gripping body, along a direction approximately parallel to the longitudinal direction of the gripping body between an open position and a closed position in which the members forming a gripper are adapted to grip an edge of the container, the removable gripping device comprising displacement means adapted to displacing members forming the gripper with respect to each other, said displacement means comprising a lever free to move in rotation with respect to the gripping body between an extended position and a retracted position in which the mobile member forming a gripper is in the closed position, and a transmission means extending between the lever and the mobile member forming a gripper adapted to displacing the mobile member forming a gripper in translation when the lever is pivoted, said displacement means being shaped such that the lever 7 is in a stable equilibrium position when it is in the extended position and when it is in the retracted position, and it passes through an intermediate unstable equilibrium position when it passes from one of these two stable equilibrium positions to the other.
Such removable gripping devices are described in patent applications FR 2 739 772 and FR 2 768 914.
In these known prior devices, when a sudden manipulation of a removable gripping device takes place, the devices forming a gripper may accidentally change from their closed position to their open position particularly if, when the members forming the gripper are in the closed position, the displacement means are close to the equilibrium position from which the members forming the gripper are brought towards their open position when the members forming the gripper are in the closed position, which means that there is a risk that the user would spill the contents of the container, possibly causing scalding.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,318,776 also describes a gripping device of the type mentioned above comprising locking means separate from the displacement means, free to move between an active position and a locked position in which they prevent the lever from accidentally rotating to its unstable equilibrium position. According to this document, the locking means are formed by a ball mounted free to slide on the gripping body and adapted so that it is partially housed in a cavity formed on the lever when the lever is in a closed position. Every time that the lever is deliberately pivoted in one direction or the other, the shape of the cavity and the force of the spring connecting the ball to the gripping body enable the ball to slide so that the ball moves into its active position. Obviously, these locking means are not capable of preventing the lever from opening in all cases, beyond a certain force applied to the lever.
Therefore the problem that arises is to make a removable gripping device according to which the members forming a gripper cannot accidentally move from their closed position to their open position, even under circumstances mentioned above, and are thus safer to use.